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By Erica GoodeThe New York Times • Wednesday October 23, 2013 7:09 AM

SAN FRANCISCO — Traffic returned to its usual gridlock on the Bay Bridge yesterday, ferry
passengers had more elbow room, and the overflowing charter buses that had been carrying
disgruntled commuters to work were put to other purposes.

But a day after two striking unions reached a tentative agreement with the Bay Area Rapid
Transit system, bringing an end to a four-day walkout, discussions continued about ways another
paralyzing strike could be prevented.

On Monday night, the prevailing emotion among union leaders, BART officials and politicians who
gathered in front of the Metropolitan Transit Commission headquarters in Oakland to announce the
tentative settlement appeared to be relief.

“This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” said Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. “I’m grateful we’re
here, but if there’s any lesson to learn, it’s that this can never happen again.”

In the tentative agreement, reached two days after a fatal accident involving a BART train
operated by a trainee, the transit system agreed to higher wage increases than it had in an earlier
offer.

According to a summary of the proposed contract sent early yesterday to Amalgamated Transit
Union 1555 employees, employees would receive 3.72 percent raises in each of the first three years
of the four-year contract and 4.22 percent the fourth year. Employee contributions to pensions
would increase 1 percent annually, and additional payments for medical benefits would not be taken
from wages.

“This offer is more than we wanted to pay, but it is also a new path in terms of our partnership
with our workers,” Grace Crunican, BART’s general manager, said on Monday night. “We compromised to
get to this place, as did our union members.”

The two unions — which represent 2,400 train operators, station agents, mechanics, clerical
workers and others — had initially demanded a 5 percent wage increase. Management had offered 2
percent. The tentative agreement must still be approved by BART’s board of directors and ratified
by the unions’ members.

On Saturday, a BART train killed two workers on a stretch of track in the East Bay. Christopher
Sheppard, 58, a BART employee, and Laurence Daniels, 66, a contractor, were inspecting a section of
track.